Malaysia to adopt Chinese-style internet filter

Malaysia has confirmed it plans to install Chinese-style controls on the internet.

The move was confirmed by the information minister after reports of the controversial plan were published on an independent news website.

Dr Rais Yatim said Malaysia had to be kept free of pornography, but many have denounced the move as at an attempt at political censorship, something the Malaysian government ruled out in the mid-1990s when it was seeking foreign investment in telecoms and the IT industry.

Independent blogs and news portals have been a key factor in weakening the ruling party's hold on power recently.

It is unclear what form Malaysia's internet filter might take, but the model is almost certainly to mimic China which is trying to force manufacturers to pre-install government-approved software on all their computers.